The Currency Surgeons: Where the Dollar Never Dies

By

Craig Karmin

Updated March 1, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET

With the dollar's value at multiyear lows against other major currencies, everyone from traders to tourists is keeping an eye on the greenback. In this excerpt from "Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It's Under Siege" Craig Karmin, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, turns his attention to a little-known government agency that has been redeeming soggy, burned and ripped notes since the Civil War -- sometimes salvaging a person's life savings.